Misery, Party of Two

My poor kid.  And frankly, my poor sinuses.  And if The Boy has inherited my sinuses, my poor kid.  We are dealing with both teething and a sinus infection.  We both have the sinus infection.  I'm not teething.  He is.  He's cutting his upper molars, which will bring his toothsome mouthful total to ten.  Man, I love alliteration.

The month has flown, which is very upsetting considering it's his last official full of month of newbornness.  After this, he's "just" a baby.  Technically... a TODDLER.  *sniffle*

And while I can't say I'm sorry to put paid to a year which carried with it many interesting and exciting things, I am sad that so much of it's been spent trying to figure out how not to break The Boy and not enough on just enjoying him.  With that being said, I feel almost obligated to provide a State of the Boy speech here, since we're wrapping things up (so to speak).  So here we go!

Oh, the fun of banging on things that make noise.

He's recovered well from his surgeries - you'd never know to look at him that he ever spent time in the hospital.  Early on, we discovered that he is allergic to apples, just like his daddy.  Later on, we discovered he is allergic to milk proteins and possibly soy.  Oddly, I can drink soy milk without affecting him, but I don't think he can have it (and I'm not ready to sneak it back into his diet yet).  So now he is drinking hemp milk, but Dr. Hutchins (the successor to Dr. Rock Star Wilson) says that we can go ahead and try almond milk after he's back to healthy.  Yay!  It's cheaper and easier to find, although I love the omegas in hemp.  Maybe we'll alternate.

His first word that was used with consistency and purpose was "goc." This means "dog."  Why, yes - it is humbling that he verbalized the furry critters who consider him a conduit to contraband crunchies before his doting parents.  I try not to pout. 

His second word is "di," which stands for "daddy."  He uses "dub" and "buc" interchangeably for "duck" (as in bathroom toys) and "book" (as in things that are both good to eat and turn pages).  He does not say "mommy" in any distinguishable way, other than this one:

 Yep, that means, "Moooooommy!"  Warms my heart.  Okay, actually it sends prickles up my spine, but I'm keeping it positive today.

He is cruising, taking tentative steps between furniture and mom, and pulling up on the dogs (who are simultaneously alarmed and perplexed by this behavior, but handling it fairly gracefully).  They fascinate him as much as he fascinates them.  Fingers are amazing.  Blocks, books, videotapes, anything that stacks can be and will be.

 He is also climbing EVERYTHING.  He considers the recliner both his personal Everest and a throne.

Once the heights are achieved, he can rest before descent.

He has an awesome sense of humor.  It's a gas to shut Mommy out of the bathroom:

 He also thinks it is the height of funny to burp, cough, sneeze, or clear one's throat.  Lately he has been tickled by feeding me, sharing his sippy cup with me, and passing things back and forth between the two of us.  Oh, yes - we no longer use a bottle.  It was an incredibly easy transition, actually.  One day I decided that he didn't need it anymore, and he never noticed it was gone.  He's also started taking his medicines from a medicine cup, rather than a syringe.  I don't actually trust his milk to an open cup yet, but... baby steps.

 I'm sure there's more.  Oh!  He outgrew the Graco infant car seat by height loooong before weight was a consideration, so we bought the Britax:

 You can see the difference immediately.  The Graco actually fits inside the Britax.  But since this is going to be his car throne for the next 5 years or so, we went big to match our long boy, and got the safest seat we could find.  It will allow us to rear-face his seat until 40 pounds if we wish (although his height might mean we swap him around at 3 rather than 4), and will let him recline in the forward-facing position for long road trips.  He hated it at first, because it really is snug, but now loves it, because it's very well-designed for his comfort.  So we are happy.

His registry is updated for birthday goodies, and now also carries on it - training pants!  Yes.  He hates diaper changes so much that I am determined to start potty training as soon as his new chair and the first batch of pants and waterproof covers arrives (the potty I bought last week is now... too small.  Egad.).  We'll see how it goes.  And as always, will keep you, our loyal readers, up to date on all things Ivan.

New Germs Need Not Apply.

We've had enough of your sort running through this house in the past two weeks.  First, there was the stomach bug that decimated us.  Next, Ivan the Elder brought home a nasty little head cold from his Habitat for Humanity stint. 

The Boy is still having trouble breathing through his nose.  His ped prescribed Claritin but it's not half as effective as Benadryl, so today that's what he got, along with much saline drops and aspiration.  Both of which he enjoys not so much at all.

His acid reflux is back, so he's on Zantac and for now additionally a probiotic - he's been having a lot of trouble lately and his pediatrician thinks it's because the stomach bug wiped out all his good bacteria.  I think he might have trouble with the soy milk, so we're trying - don't giggle - hemp milk for a little bit.  It's more easily digested, so while his flora is rebuilding itself, it should make things a bit more normal.  It seems to be doing the trick, but that could also just be the probiotic.  Who knows?  He can't tell me, so I must guess.  And I guess we'll finish out the probiotics and hemp milk and gradually reintroduce soy for him and cheese for me.

What's new?  Putting lids on things:

Yes, that's a glass candle.  No, I carefully did not get excited.  But wait!  Not only does the lid fit that candle, it fits this one...

Sort of.  I'm sorry to say, the breakable candle no longer resides on the hearth.  My nerves just couldn't take it.

Also at risk for exploration are the AV components that remained unmolested for so long...

And you may notice his "reorganization" of our videocassette collection.  This is a daily activity.  I'm waiting to see when he figures out that the latter gets inserted in the former.  We've only watched a few things (Baby Einstein videos from Auntie Liz) and he wasn't paying attention to the procedure, so I'm good.  For now.  No, I won't take bets on for how long.

Developments...

In addition to his continued and increasingly more sophisticated need for parity - everything he does must include one item of identical or very similar persuasion in each hand (such as two cars, two crackers, two videocassettes, two candles) - he now is willing to negotiate.  He knows, "Drink some water first," "Drink your milk," "Fruit first, and then I'll give you the cracker," and responds to each.  Thank goodness; I'm not sure what I'd have done if he was prepared to out-stubborn me. 

He's switching between cruising platforms easily (table, sofa, me).  He's doing more crawling since we've been having races up and down the upstairs hallway.  He'd still rather do his inchworm thing; it's fast, it's efficient, and he's happy with it, so why change?  But every now and then he gets cross-locomotion.  Next year he will be in pre-school (Mother's Morning Out) with two other babies his age, so I'm hoping he'll learn as much from them as he has the toddlers with whom he currently plays on Monday and Wednesday mornings.

He's doing a LOT more babbling.  He still communicates with raspberries as much as with syllables, but he has several consonant sounds now - a few hard ones and a couple different sibilants - and he is clearly trying to develop language.  No Baby Signs yet, other than the one for milk (which he does on my chest, so I'm not sure that really counts?).  Sometimes he'll wave, sometimes he'll give high fives, but it's always on his terms and never with regularity.  He initiates games of peekaboo now, which he finds hilarious, and loves when all three of us get under the blanket.  He still hates to snuggle, because he'd rather be on the move, but every now and then I get hugs and kisses.  And do I live for those?  Indeed.

He's awake - I hear him muttering to himself in his crib.  When I go in, he'll be sitting up or kneeling with his hands on the top rail, smiling fit to burst.  I melt.

Even now.